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Soccer Drills

Soccer is, without doubt, one of the most popular sports in the world, and whether you’re coaching children, recreational amateurs or a professional squad, soccer drills form a vital part of the their training.

Soccer has to be fun, and especially when young children are involved, the most fun it is the more likely they are to keep on playing, so bear that in mind when you’re planning the soccer drills for your next training session.

Soccer drills are most fun when they are a game in themselves, rather than the usual, run up here and shoot at a dustbin lid type stuff (although some of the penalty takers in the last world cup should have had a bit more practice at that, don’t you think?)

Soccer is fun, and although winning isn’t everything, it’s the taking part which counts (which, according to Martina Navratilova is only the opinion of losers!), winning makes it more fun doesn’t it, and the more innovative and fun soccer drills you can come up with, the better trained your squad will be – they’ll be quicker, more agile and have improved accuracy. I bet you can’t wait to get started can you?

Soccer Drill Examples

• Hit the Coach – let’s start off simply, but this should only be attempted with a group of very small children! Simply line the kids up and give them each a football, then the coach should stand a few paces in front of them. As the drill starts the coach begins to run away slowly, and the kids dribble their balls after him and try to hit him with the football (told you to use small kids). Once the coach has been hit a predetermined number of times, say 5, then he has to do a forfeit for the kids – bark like a dog, behave like a monkey or something like that.  If you have a lot of kids chasing you, maybe you could persuade one of the parents to take some of them for you – kids love it and they learn to control the ball while running, look up while dribbling and shoot on target.
• Dribble around a cone and pass relay – is one of the most effective soccer drills you can use, for older kids (from around 8 years) to adults. It teaches passing while running, speed dribbling, aggressive receiving, turning, one-touch control into an open space, receivers to keep moving with the ball and how to receive a ball under pressure and at speed. All of those things go to make a good all-round player, and a good effective team. How it works: – divide into 2 teams and give one ball to each team. Each team needs a starting cone and a turning cone, around 8 – 15 steps apart (depending on the size of the players), line the teams up, around 4 – 6 steps apart from each other so that each team must turn in the same direction, eg, at first everyone goes left.  At the start of the game one player from each team dribbles to the turning cone, turns and passes the ball back to his team-mate (the receiver) who cannot move forward until he has received the ball, but must stop the ball from going past him at all costs. The pass needs to be accurate and the right speed, one bad pass can mean game over. The passer then runs back to the starting cone and will become the receiver. The first team to, say 8 passes, wins. Then simply line them up at the other side so they have to turn to the right around the turning cone. This game can get very competitive – you have been warned.
• Tick Tock – here’s a quickie which is remarkably easy to set up but can prove a bit tricky. Every player has a ball and starts with it between his feet and bent knees. On the whistle the player simply taps the ball between his feet, and the first to 20/30/40 or whatever wins. They’ll find that using the front of the foot gives much better control than using the back.
• Timing Kicks Game – kicking a cross ball in a controlled manner is a vital part of football, and this soccer drill teaches just that. Simply line your players up around 15 or 20 steps in front of the goal, and the coach stands around 10 steps to one side, a few steps out from the goal (depending on the size of the players).  On go, the coach gently kicks a ball parallel across the goal and the first player runs up to kick the ball into the goal. The players should start running quickly with long strides, and then shorten their stride accordingly to the position of the ball, take a short backswing and pow!! As the players get better at it the coach moves further from the goal and towards the players.

These are just a few examples of soccer drills which can help to make training fun and effective.